If I Had A Hammer...

This title is from an old popular song to which I know only a few words, but it came to mind this morning as I sat down to write this post.

Over this spring and summer I've been reading a lot of material from David Roper. I confess I had never heard of him until recently, but I have thoroughly enjoyed his down-to-earth, but penetrating thoughts on Scripture and life.

One of the books I just finished reading was Seeing God, which is collection of Roper's writings from other books he has authored. The reference to the song came to mind because one of the articles bears the title of the song. He retells the story from Judges 4 and 5 of Jael. This woman appears briefly in Scripture. Her "claim to fame" is the result of hammering a tent peg into the brain of Sisera, Israel's enemy, as he slept in her tent. Roper doesn't advocate murder by hammer and tent peg as a normal way to do God's will, but he makes another point that embraced me. I am going to let him say what he said so well.

Admittedly not many women (or men, for that matter) are called to carry out such violent acts. Most of our obedience comes in the ordinary affairs of everyday life. But we never know what heroism lies in quiet obedience to God, and there's no biblical reason why a woman, in her obedience, may not play an extraordinary role in the unfolding drama of world redemption.

In his book, I Francis, Carlo Carretto, the twentieth-century Italian theologian and mystic wrote: "Today, a woman must bear the words of Jesus as a man bears them; and if Jesus says, 'Go and make disciples of all nations,' it must no longer be that a man bears this in one way and a woman in another...

"Do not copy men. Be authentic. Seek, in your femaleness, the root that distinquishes you from them. It is unmistakable, for it has been willed and created by God himself. Repeat to yourselves every day: 'A man is not a woman.'"

Women are fully equal to men in their capacity ot know God, to learn from Him, and to do what He calls them to do. So (and here I speak to women), seek in your created role as a woman the "root that distinquishes you" and follow Jesus. You cannot imagine where He will take you and what He will do with you there, but I tell you this: He is "able to do immeasurably more that all [you] ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within [you]" (Ephesians 3:20)

I say then to us men, when we belittle women and minimize their abilities, when we attempt to curb their God-given gifts and creativity and restrict their service, when we think that women, merely because they are women, will reason irrationally, act irresponsibly, or fold under pressure, we've missed what is said again and again in God's Word. There is "neither...male nor female" (Galatians 3:28). When it comes to doing God's will, the differences between men and women—whatever they are—make no difference at all.

Hammer on, ladies, I say. Hammer on!

Image by Victoria from Pixabay